1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technology field of catalytic equipment, and more particularly to a liquid catalyzing system using a plurality of nano metal flakes as a catalyst for accelerating the ripening of a specific liquid, such as wine, vinegar and soy sauce.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nanoparticle is a micro solid grain constituted by dozens of atoms to hundreds of atoms and includes very special physical and chemical characteristics. The electronic structure of the nanoparticle is different from other small particles because the electronic structure of the nanoparticle shows high-percentage surface atom number; so that, the nanoparticles can not only be used as a homogeneous catalyst, but also be taken as a heterogeneous catalyst.
With the booming development of the researches in nano materials, the applications of nano catalysts are getting wider. Currently, the definitions of the nano catalysts are divided into two kinds of (1) defining by particle diameter and (2) defining by pore diameter. In which, the first-kind definition means the particles having the diameter smaller than 100 nm can be applied as a nano catalyst. Moreover, for the second-kind definition, zeolite is one of the representative nano catalysts because the zeolite includes a plurality of pores with nano-level diameter.
Nowadays, nano catalysts are divided into nano metal catalysts and nano metal oxide catalysts, wherein the nano metal oxide catalysts can also be used as a supporting carrier for the nano metal catalysts. Besides, the nano metal catalysts are further divided into the catalysts with supporting carrier and the nano metal catalysts without supporting carrier. For instance, nano nickel particles are one kind of the catalysts with supporting carrier used for accelerating the liquid-phase hydrogenation. Moreover, the nano nickel particles can also be applied as the catalyst for accelerating the hydrogenation of a vegetable oil. However, because the nano nickel particles (i.e., the catalyst without supporting carrier) have no any supporting carriers, a portion of the nano nickel particles would gather on the inner wall of the catalytic reactor when the catalytic reaction is executed. That is the primary drawback of the catalysts without supporting carrier in application.
The conventional carriers for supporting the catalysts include alumina, silicon oxide, activated carbon, graphite, and zeolite. When one nano metal catalyst is supported by a specific carrier, the particles of the nano metal catalyst would be kept highly distributing, such that the nano metal particles are avoided from gathering on the inner wall of the catalytic reactor when the catalytic reaction is executed.
Fermented alcoholic liquid is the product of treating a specific raw material (such as wheat) with a fermentation process so as to transform the sugar ingredients (especially for starch) in the wheat to ethanol. However, some byproducts differing from the ethanol would be concomitantly produced during the fermentation process, such as organic acid, fusel, methanol, acetaldehyde, and esters. In the byproducts, esters are the aroma source of the alcoholic liquid, but the organic acid, fusel and methanol would induce some side effects including disturbing spirit flavor, resulting in drinker's hangover, causing heavy metabolic burden to drinker's liver, et cetera. So that, spirit and wine manufactures have developed many catalyzing techniques for accelerating the ripening of the fermented alcoholic liquid, wherein some catalyzing techniques use nano gold particles as an important catalyst for rapidly aging the fermented alcoholic liquid.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which illustrate a framework diagram of a conventional equipment for aging alcoholic liquids. As shown in FIG. 1, the equipment for aging alcoholic liquids consists of: a storage cask 10′ provided with a nano gold target 30′ thereinside, a circulation pump 12′, and a circulation loop 11′. To age a specific alcoholic liquid 20′ in the storage cask 10′, the circulation pump 12′ is operated to make the alcoholic liquid 20′ flows cyclically through the circulation loop 11′, so as to enhance the contact frequency between the alcoholic liquid 20′ and the nano gold particles carried by the nano gold target 30′. Therefore, the formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and fusel in the alcoholic liquid 20′ would be oxidized to organic acids by the nano gold catalyst; moreover, the nano gold catalyst would further accelerate the esterification reaction of the organic acids, so as to complete the alcoholic liquid's ripening.
However, because the nano gold target 30′ used in the equipment for aging alcoholic liquids shown by FIG. 1 is fabricated by sputtering the nano gold particles onto a non-woven cloth (i.e., a carrier of the nano gold particles), the equipment for aging alcoholic liquids shown by FIG. 1 reveals some drawbacks under operation. The person skilled in the technology fields of liquid catalyzing equipment is able to know that the effective reaction area of the nano catalyst with supporting carrier is limited and smaller than the nano catalyst without supporting carrier. Besides, when the alcoholic liquid 20′ constantly flows through the circulation pump 12′ and the circulation loop 11′, a portion of the nano gold particles attached on the non-woven cloth would separate from the non-woven cloth, and then mix with the alcoholic liquid 20′.
Accordingly, in view of the conventional equipment for aging alcoholic liquids still include drawbacks, the inventor of the present application has made great efforts to make inventive research thereon and eventually provided a liquid catalyzing system.